Afghan officer kills Camp Pendleton Marines

Three Marines from a Camp Pendleton special operations forces battalion were fatally shot before dawn Friday in Helmand province by an Afghan police officer who had just shared a meal with them.

It was the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week.

Capt. Matt Manoukian, 29, of Los Altos Hills was killed along with two other special operations troops after an Afghan police commander invited them to a meeting to discuss security issues, his family reported. The meeting followed the meal, which took place early because of daytime fasting restrictions during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Manoukian, the team leader, was fatally wounded in the Puzeh area of Sangin district with another operator and an explosive ordnance disposal technician from the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, said Master Sgt. Jonathan Cress, spokesman for Special Operations Task Force-West in Afghanistan. Their names are being withheld by the Defense Department pending notification of family.

The “green-on-blue” attack occurred in the volatile Sangin district of Helmand province, confirmed U.S. military spokeswoman Maj. Lori Hodge. Sangin was a Taliban stronghold for years and has one of the highest concentrations of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan.

Authorities are searching for the gunman, who fled after the shooting. Sangin’s district chief and the Taliban both identified the assailant as a member of the Afghan National Police who was helping Marines train the Afghan local police.

The local police in that area of Sangin recently located and killed several prominent Taliban commanders, with assistance from the Marine special operations team to call in the fatal air strike. The body of one of the insurgents who had an especially brutal reputation was paraded through town on a donkey.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said by telephone that the attacker joined the insurgency after his attack Friday. “Now, he is with us,” Ahmadi said.

Last month, during an interview with U-T San Diego in Afghanistan, Manoukian said he trusted Afghan forces as his partners in a joint mission of “security, governance and development. It’s a full-spectrum operation.”

In 25 attacks this year, 31 U.S. coalition service members have died at the hands of Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms, according to NATO. There were 11 such attacks and 20 deaths last year, according to an Associated Press count. Each of the previous two years saw five such attacks.

The assaults have cast a shadow of fear and mistrust over U.S. efforts to train Afghan soldiers and police more than 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban’s hardline Islamist regime for sheltering al-Qaeda’s leadership. They also raise further doubts about the quality of the Afghan forces taking over in many areas before most international troops leave the country in 2014.

Manoukian, the son of two judges, joined the Marine Corps about seven years ago. He was on his fourth combat deployment — including his second in Afghanistan.

“He loved the Marines,” said Manoukian’s father, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Socrates “Peter” Manoukian. “He loved America. He loved people who were different than him. He was the ultimate tough guy, and if he was on your side, you were going to have a good day.”

When asked about what he missed about home, Capt. Manoukian said he was focused on his work in Puzeh, which he found to be particularly rewarding because of the talents of his teammates.

“To be honest with you I love my job. This is what I enjoy doing and I can't get enough of it ... working with a complex problem set with some of the most dedicated, well-trained, heavy-hitting individuals around. Everyone out here is just amazing,” he said.

Matt Manoukian graduated from St. Francis High School in Mountain View in 2001 after playing varsity football. At 6-foot-3, he was offered a chance to walk on to the football team at UCLA, his father said, but decided to attend the University of Arizona, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 2005 with a major in political science and a minor in sociology.

He then enlisted in the Marine Corps and attended officer candidate school. Peter Manoukian said his son had talked about becoming a Marine since age 10 after learning his father couldn’t join because of injuries.

Peter Manoukian said when his son was deployed in Iraq, he easily bonded with the locals. Matt Manoukian’s grandfather had played soccer in Iraq in 1944, a fact that the locals embraced, and they felt at ease with a Marine who had Armenian heritage. It also helped that Manoukian learned Arabic, assisted with the opening of a school in Anbar province, helped set up a police station there, teamed with others to establish a courthouse and taught children to play baseball with the bats and balls that a friend sent over.

In 2007, he was injured and suffered a severe concussion as a result of a bomb explosion. Yet, Manoukian still found the strength to put a tourniquet around a fellow Marine’s leg.

“We were always worried because we knew he would always run to trouble. He wanted to help. He was a heat-seeking missile,” Peter Manoukian said.

Matt Manoukian’s mother is Associate Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian, a member of the California Court of Appeal’s Sixth Appellate District since 1989. He also is survived by brothers Michael, 27, and Martin, 22.

This was to be Matt Manoukian’s final deployment, his father said. He had been accepted to law school; his interest in the legal profession was cemented after he began analyzing shariah law versus U.S. law, and he hoped to eventually become a public defender.

On Friday night, his parents, siblings and other relatives gathered at the family home to meet with Marine officials regarding details of the memorial service. Peter Manoukian said the family was discussing what might be a fitting honor for a captain who never talked about the hardships or dangers of combat service, preferring to discuss family activities in his almost daily emails from Iraq or Afghanistan.

He asked for new photos of his father’s 30 chickens. He inquired about his parents’ health. He sent good wishes to friends.

“Most of all, he was a sweet kid,” Peter Manoukian said. “He was my pride and heart.”